Why it works: Apple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Baked Apples
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apples
Select ripe apples of nearly equal size, free from imperfections, wipe them carefully and remove the blossom ends.
For sour and firm apples, pare them before baking and place in an earthen pie dish with a little hot water.
For sour apples, pare, core, and fill the centers with sugar, jelly, or a mixture of chopped raisins and dates, then bake in a shallow earthen dish with water.
Sweet apples are best baked without paring.
Bake
If apples are not very juicy, add enough water to cover the bottom of the baking dish.
If the apples brown too quickly, cover the tops with a granite-ware pie dish.
Baste often with the syrup while baking.
Add more hot water if the syrup dries out.
Serve
When done, let them cool slightly, then transfer to a glass dish and pour the thick amber-colored syrup over them.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Provide the main body and flesh that softens and becomes tender during baking.
- Water
- Creates steam and syrup in the dish, keeping the apples moist while they bake.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps form the thick amber syrup as it cooks.
The step that matters
Adding more hot water when the syrup dries out. Low liquid lets the sugars in the syrup scorch and the apples dry out. Replenishing hot water keeps the syrup loose and the apples moist while they bake.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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